Neville Longbottom And The Not So Typical Hufflepuff
by AWildLittleVixenWhoWrites
Summary: auverse 5th year, neville x oc, fluff/humor- Neville Longbottom is not used to girls even showing a little interest in him but then he meets Veronica Langston, an American transfer, on the train ride to Hogwarts. It's clear from the start that she's interested in him and he clearly doesn't know how to handle it.But he winds up falling for her too on top of everything else he faces.
1. Train Ride To Hogwarts

ONE

She heaved the heavy suitcase out of the trunk of her mother's car and sat it down on the pavement beside her, looking around the crowded train station. She definitely felt out of place here, she could definitely tell she was sort of an outsider.

She'd probably be an even bigger one at her new boarding school, but hey, that's kind of what happens when your old boarding school shuts it's doors, isn't it?

She'd adjust accordingly, she was good at adjusting.

She slicked on her lipgloss and slid her feet into the heeled sandals she wore and then turned to her mom, stared at her a few moments, quietly.

"It can't be that bad, right? You met my father here."

"Hogwarts is a good school, Veronica." her mom said quietly as she hugged her, looked down at her and fluffed her hair, staring a few moments. "Just don't go pulling any of those crazy schemes of yours, huh?" the older female said quietly as she thought about how she'd felt, starting school at Hogwarts.. Her first ride on the train, the way she'd felt when she met that one guy, the way she'd made probably the greatest group of friends while attending Hogwarts that a girl could ask for.

And then the first Wizarding War came and she lost all that. Her family got torn apart, she lost the love of her life during one of the many battles and she'd decided to sort of distance herself from the UK, from it's Wizarding population.

But when their little girl started showing signs of magic.. She hadn't had the heart to ignore it. She'd found a magic school in America similar to Hogwarts, sent her little girl there. And for a long time, all had been well and good.. And then the Wizarding community in America started to crumble and implode from the inside.. And the Muggles were looking to wipe any traces of magic out..

Her daughters school was one of many closed as a result. And when the owl came for her transfer, the older woman hadn't been the least bit surprised to discover that like her parents, Veronica would now be attending Hogwarts.

In the middle of tensions rising for the second wizarding war.

The older woman wasn't sure how she felt about this, sending her baby off right into the middle of all this, she'd be across an ocean for the love of Christ. There simply wasn't enough money for the two female family to uproot and move just because Veronica had gotten into Hogwarts.

So this was the two saying goodbye until holiday break.

"Who, mom? Me? Surely you joke.. I'm an angel, we both know this." Veronica joked solemnly as she pointed to herself.

She saw a group of kids around her own age going into the station and she watched them talking and laughing for a few moments. They all had friends, they'd all known each other from the beginning.

Here she was, coming into the school, having to be sorted with the firsties in her 5th year. That in itself was going to be daunting, as she understood from her mother that the ceremony took place in front of the **entire school**. She bit her lower lip and ran her hand through her thick dark curls.

"This is it."

"It is, angel."

"I should get going so I don't miss the train, huh?" Veronica mused with an edge of uncertainty in her voice as she hugged her mother, inhaled deeply for one last whiff of her mom's perfume.

She'd never been this far away from home before. She'd never been in a place where she stood out without doing it deliberately because she wanted to.

For the slightly wild and mischevious 15 year old, this was going to be one hell of an experience.

* * *

She slid on her sunglasses and smiled, waved her mother off before turning and walking into the station, barely managing her suitcases and navigating in heels. She'd just turned a corner when she collided with the taller dark haired boy and her suitcases went everywhere.

"Shit."

Neville studied the petite raven haired girl with a raised brow before muttering an apology and bending to help her pick things up. When one of her bags burst in his hand, he coughed a little at the myriad of brightly colored satin and lace, the frilly things. He held out a few things he managed to grab, a bottle of perfume, a case full of something he had to guess was some form of makeup, a bra, which he blushed bright red after he realized what it was.

"Here. I'm.. I'm sorry, I should've watched where I was going."

"Are you serious? I kind of ran into you, big guy. I wasn't looking where I was going and I'm sorry."

The fact that she was even talking to him, the way she kept biting her lip, looking at him baffled him a little. He picked up one of the required text books for his school, Hogwarts and held it out to her, further baffled.. Had she been going to Hogwarts all along?

He'd heard something about new students, the Ministry in America was being forced to take the very existance of the wizarding world underground there, it had nothing to do with Voldemort, of course, there, it was Muggles who ruled over all and the Muggles were 'uncomfortable' with the existance of the Wizarding world..

It was nothing like the dire set of circumstances that lie ahead here.

"Thanks." she said as she took the book, coughed a little. His maroon and gold striped tie was crooked, it was driving her insane. She leaned forward, still bent over and straightened it, fluffed his hair as she said casually, "It was sort of annoying."

"Oh."

"So, umm.. We should maybe get off the floor of the train station now, I'd think?" Veronica asked playfully as she sprang up, smoothed her hands down the sundress she was wearing, held out a hand that was attached to a wrist full of bracelets.

"Yeah." Neville managed to cough as he let her think she was helping him up.

"So.. Since we're both obviously getting on the same train.. I can show you where the platform is?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice.. I was kind of confused.. 9 and ¾ ?" Veronica asked, studying the bright pink ink on her hand, she'd written down the platform she was supposed to board on before leaving the hotel she'd stayed in with her mother the night before to avoiding getting lost.

"Just watch me." Neville said quietly, not noticing this sort of calm and confident tone his voice took when he spoke.. Or how he seemed to stand a little straighter as they wove through the crowd, this strange petite girl practically dragging him by the hand in her excitement.

The way the shy and normally clumsy self professed nerd saw it, the novelty of him would wear off not even a second after they boarded the train and she set sights on one of the other blokes running around, say one of the Weasleys, or Potter, or even McClaggen.. Or Malfoy, if she liked danger and jerks.

He honestly didn't think that after they boarded the train, she'd acknowledge his presence again, really.

"What you want to do is run at that brick wall.. You want to hit it dead center. Watch me."

"Umm, are you crazy?"

"No, actually, I'm serious."

"But that's a brick wall.."

"They didn't have this in America?"

The girl shook her head, stared at the wall a few moments and then admitted, "We umm.. Our parents dropped us off by car at the beginning of the year."

"Oh.."

"I have a suggestion though?" Veronica said, eying the wall before turning her gaze back to him, nodding down at their hands as she said with a smile, "How about you kinda pull me through? Or does that work?"

He raked his hands through his shaggy dark brown hair and stared at the wall a moment. What she was suggesting wasn't a bad idea.. He just didn't see why she was suggesting it.. With him, of all people.

Girls didn't really like him much, he knew this due to past experiences.

This one, however, seemed to be flirting with him just a little and he didn't know what to do with it.

"I suppose it could work?"

"We can try it.. I mean unless you don't want to, of course." Veronica said as she looked up at him, head tilted slightly to one side. She noticed that his eyes were this gorgeous shade of green and mentally kicked herself.

There she went again, hopeless romantic she was.

She coughed a little and looked up at him and then at the wall before muttering quietly, "It was a dumb idea.. I'll try what you said."

She stared at the wall and took a few deep breaths, but for some reason that Neville didn't quite figure out, he grabbed her hand and ran at the wall while holding her hand so that she got through too. They sort of collapsed on the floor of the platform on the other side of the brick wall, with Veronica laughing, Neville looking up at her with a brow raised because she'd partially landed on top of him when they'd tumbled through.

"That was awesome.. I mean it, it was fucking amazing."

He raised a brow and her hand went to her mouth a moment.

"Well? It was." Veronica said as she stood, smoothed down the sundress she was wearing and held out her hand again.

Again, he grabbed for it, and again, he pretended for whatever reason, that she pulled him up.

"You are an angel." she said with a smile and wink before grabbing her things and taking a few deep breaths, staring in determination at the train as if she were a little overwhelmed and freaked out by the prospect of getting on the train currently.. She was.

"You are strong. You are confident, you're good at adapting. You've got this." she muttered to herself quietly, Neville looking down at her as he chuckled a little and asked, "Scared, are you?"

"Just a little." Veronica said as she held her arms out as wide as they could go.

"It's not that bad a place."

" My mom.. She said it was amazing, that some of the best years of her life were spent here. This is where she met Daddy." Veronica said quietly as she looked at the waiting train.

"Suppose we should get on and find a seat now, huh?" she muttered as Neville nodded and then said again quietly, "You'll be fine."

"I'm not too sure about that." Veronica admitted quietly, biting her lower lip as she walked up the steel steps, stepped into the corridor of the Hogwarts Express.

Her eyes darted all around, taking in all the sights, familiarizing herself with her surroundings. She tried to find an empty cab and finally, she found one and walked toward it, pausing in the doorway to look around and see if the intoxicatingly handsome guy that helped her through the brick wall just now were anywhere in sight.

He wasn't.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted. I will definitely have to find out his name. He was a hunk." Veronica mused aloud as she slunk into the empty cab and flopped down on one of the velvet upholstered benches, leaning back, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Thank God we didn't have to fly. I wasn't entirely thrilled with the plane ride required to get me this far." she mused aloud as she reached down, dug through her purse and fished out a book, opened it and started to read.

* * *

Down in the cab inhabited by Neville, Neville sat quietly staring out the window a few moments. "She'll forget me. Everyone else usually does." he muttered as he threaded the bright red ribbon that had fallen out of her hair when they tumbled through the brick wall just then between his fingers clumsily.

The door to the cab opened and he heard the Irish brogue of Seamus Finnigan, who was talking to Dean and Lee about a Quidditch match they'd all been to see. The conversation stopped when Seamus noticed the red ribbon and raised a brow asking with a suggestive leer, "Going girly on us, Longbottom?"

"No, why?" Neville asked, then looking down at his hand, at the ribbon in it, he shoved the ribbon into his pocket, swearing a little.

Then Dean asked casually, "So.. There were some people saying that they saw you lying on the floor of the platform with a girl perched on ya? Truth?"

"She fell."

"Well? Was she pretty?"

"Yeah."

"He needs a few minutes, lads, bloody 'ell." Seamus snickered as he punched his friend on the upper arm, earning him the usual glare from Neville who said quietly, "Doesn't matter.. It's highly doubtful she even speaks to me again."

"Oh come on, mate, don't be like tat."

"It's the truth."

"Ahh, I dunno, Longbottom.. Judging by what's going around right now, she looked pretty interested. If she hadn't been, she'd have gotten up quicker, I'd think."

Neville shrugged, keeping quiet.

The less he actually said right now, given the way his friends were sort of teasing him, the less likely it was that the three nuts would go off on a hair and try to do something like shove him in the girls path or make him talk to her or something, the less likely it would be that he'd embarrass her, or that he'd be embarassed.


	2. Walk Me To My Dorm

TWO

Almost as soon as she set sights on the woman wearing a sickeningly pink skirt suit, she grimaced and tapped the girl sitting nearest her at the Hufflepuff table, nodding in the woman's general direction as she asked the other Hufflepuff, "I'm not going to like her.. Am I?"

"Nobody else does. She worked with the Ministry, for some reason they sent her here. She'll be the Defense teacher."

"Defense against what? Sex? Because I think it's obvious that she's not getting any in that get up." Veronica blurted out making the other Hufflepuff gape at her. She shrugged and turned her attention back to her food. Clearly, her sense of humor was a lot dirtier than most peoples here. It didn't bother her, really, but she made a mental note to try and at least appear more tactful in the future.

She felt eyes on her and turned, briefly she locked eyes with Neville, the boy she'd met on the train ride to school. The one she'd sort of gotten her socks knocked off by if she dared admitting it. She smiled brightly, waved at him and nodding at the woman speaking, she rolled her eyes and mouthed, "She's so annoying."

Neville seemed to get this shocked look on his face that she was even acknowledging him.

Another girls statement a few seconds later quickly clued her in as to why when the girl nodded at him too and said "That's Neville Longbottom. Sweet enough boy, just shy.. Painfully shy.. And he gets picked on a lot."

"But why though?"

"Because.. he's Neville." the girl answered.

Veronica gave the girl's turned back a dirty look and rolled her eyes. She suspected there was some kind of insult in that last remark and though she didn't personally know Neville, she found herself irritated slightly that people picked on him. Maybe it was because he'd been so sweet to her at the station or maybe it was slightly more than just his having been so nice to her on the train, she couldn't entirely be sure, but she found herself personally offended by the girl's vague insulting comment.

Maybe that's why she stupidly did what she did next and tapped the girl on the shoulder. When the girl turned around, she nodded again at Neville and said with a smug grin, "Actually, Neville is my boyfriend." as she dipped her spoon into her pudding and slid it into her mouth, eying the girl who all but gaped at her as if she had three or four eyes or something.

"What?"

"You're.. You're kidding, right?"

"Actually, no."

"You have to be."

Veronica rolled her eyes and got back to eating quietly, not bothering to make any further conversation with the girl sitting beside her. And as she ate, she made her decision.. She would at least try to become friends with the Gryffindor male.

Because there was just something about him that drew her to him.

And because she hated the thought of people actually picking on him. Especially after he'd been so sweet to her at the station and on the train and after, when they'd had to get on the boats to cross the lake leading to the school and she'd maybe panicked just a little bit.

The feast ended and she rose from her chair quickly, catching up to him as he walked out of the Great Hall, tapping his shoulder..

* * *

Neville was talking to Seamus and some of the others when he felt a tap to his shoulder and turned around to find Veronica, the girl he'd met earlier on the train ride to Hogwarts, standing there, smiling this bright smile as she waved at him.

"Hi."

"Hi." Neville mumbled, eying her with a wary look. Did she not realize that talking to him was basically assuring that she didn't make many friends? He wasn't popular or interesting or handsome like Potter or one of the Weasleys or even Malfoy though he personally hated Malfoy and felt as if Malfoy being an absolute git sort of overruled any redeeming qualities that the Slytherin male might possess somewhere deep down inside him.

He was surprised that she was even talking to him now, in all honesty.

"Can I walk with you? I mean until we have to go our seperate ways to our commons rooms?" Veronica asked, biting her lower lip, giving him one of those begging looks. He chuckled a little and then pointed out "You'll actually be at your house's common room in a little under a minute or so."

"So? I want to walk with you."

"Okay." Neville agreed, mostly curious as to why she seemed to seek him out just now. He'd personally thought that the novelty would have worn off on the shared boat ride to the castle after they'd unboarded the train at Hogsmeade Station earlier.

He ignored the looks and the smirks and whispering that his male friends were all doing currently, telling Veronica in that same slightly more confident voice from earlier, "Ignore them."

"What are they doing?" Veronica asked as she eyed his three male friends, brow raised. They kept looking at her, whispering, looking at Neville and whispering more.. Maybe she could get them to help her sort of clue the big guy in to how she felt about him sooner or later?

She filed away that idea for later.

It was still too soon yet.

But she was determined, she'd made up her mind already, she wanted to get to know him, maybe become his friend and hopefully, the rest would work itself out in time.

It looked like she might be in for quite a challenge, because he looked wary of her, like he thought she had some sort of alterior motive just even talking to him.

She did, it just wasn't a bad one like she worried that he thought it was.

"And here you are." Neville said as they stood in front of the portrait that hid the Hufflepuff commons room door. He turned to walk off and she called his name, stopping him. He turned around to look at her and she said with a wink, "You really are an angel among men. I'll see you around, Neville."

"I, ermm, thanks?" Neville muttered, baffled by the compliment and it's meaning and why it felt like she really was flirting with him still, even now after having actually seen some of the other boys that attended Hogwarts.

Why him?

She had to be up to something, he thought to himself as he walked up the stairs and found his own commons room, going inside, flopping down on the couch only to be surrounded by Dean, Seamus and Lee, all of who asked him a thousand different questions.

"She doesn't like me, I'm telling the entire lot of you. She's up to something, she has to be."

"If that's so, Longbottom, why did she tell one of the Puffies that she was your girlfriend while we were all eating earlier? How did you not hear her?" Dean asked his friend.

Neville shrugged but wondered to himself what she'd told someone that for? And what she was getting at, what she was up to, being nice to him, flirting with him like she had been nearly all day today..


End file.
